• The Parliament can extend the jurisdiction of a high court to any union territory or exclude the jurisdiction of a high court from any union territory.
• Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are set to have separate high courts by January, 2019.
• This is in line with the Supreme Court order issued to the centre to bifurcate the common Hyderabad high court for both the States.
• With the creation of the new high court, the country now has 25 high courts.

Common High Courts in India

• Following are the list of High Courts which have jurisdiction over more than 1 State/UT.
• Bombay HC – Goa, Dadra and Nager Haveli, Daman and Diu and Maharashtra
• Calcutta HC – Andaman & Nicobar Islands and West Bengal
• Guwahati HC – Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Mizoram and Nagaland.
• Kerala HC – Lakshadweep and Kerala
• Madras HC – Pondicherry and Tamil Nadu
• Punjab and Haryana HC – Chandigarh, Punjab and Haryana
• Delhi is the only Union territory that has a high court of its own (since 1966).

• Third Pole is in the region which is to the north of India and to the south of China.
• The Third Pole region spreads across the Himalaya-Hindu Kush mountain ranges and the Tibetan Plateau.
• It is called the Third Pole because it contains the third largest expanse of frozen water on earth.
• It is much smaller in area than the north or the South Pole, but is still enormous.
• Ten of Asia’s largest rivers begin in the third pole.
• These include the Yellow river and Yangtze River in China, the Irrawaddy River in Myanmar, the Ganges which flows through India and Bangladesh, and the Mekong River that flows through several countries.
• It has the largest reserve of fresh water outside the two major Polar Regions and its waters sustain life over many thousands of miles.
• The Third Pole is in the news as a warning. Temperatures in the Third Pole region have increased by 1.5 degrees – more than double the global average.
• If the temperature around the Third Pole continues to rise, they may affect the lives of 1.3 billion people – mostly in India and China.
• The north and south celestial poles are the two imaginary points in the sky where the Earth's axis of rotation, indefinitely extended, intersects the celestial sphere.
• The north and south celestial poles appear permanently directly overhead to an observer at the Earth's North Pole and South Pole, respectively.

• Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India (ALIMCO) is a Schedule ‘C’ Miniratna Category II Central Public Sector Enterprise, registered under Section 8 (Not for Profit motive) of the Companies Act 2013, (corresponding to Section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956).
• It is functioning under the Administrative Control of Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities.
• At present ALIMCO has 5 Auxiliary Production Centres (AAPCs) situated at Bhubaneswar (Orissa), Jabalpur (MP), Bengaluru (Karnataka), Chanalon (Punjab) and a new production unit in Ujjain.
• ALIMCO will establish its sixth AAPC in Faridabad, Haryana.

• World’s largest science meet ‘Indian Science Congress (ISC)-2019’ is going to be held from 3rd to 7th January 2019, in Jalandhar, Punjab.
• The 106th edition of ISC-2019 is based on the theme ‘Future India: Science and Technology’.

• The recent Tsunami in Indonesia has put the spotlight on the country’s most endangered animal species – the javan rhino.
• Experts warn that if another tsunami were to strike, the only surviving javan rhinos in the world could be killed.

• Lake Urmia which was situated in the mountains of north-western Iran was once the largest lake in West Asia.
• The shrinking of Lake Urmia is one of the world’s worst ecological disasters of recent decades.
• Urmia is fed by 13 rivers and designated as a site of International importance under the UN convention on wetlands that was signed in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971.
• Iran and UN initiated a joint programme in 2013 funded by Japan to save L.Urmia.

• Recently, the state government was alleged to be planning to grant permanent resident certificate (PRC) to six indigenous groups that are not classified as Scheduled Tribes in the State.
• These communities are Deori, Sonowal Kachari, Moran, Mishing, Adivasi and Gorkha.
• The organisations in AP had pointed out that non-Arunachal Pradesh Scheduled Tribes (Non-APSTs) should not be given PRC or land possession certificates in violation of the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation Act of 1873, which prohibits possession of land and entry without permit by people not belonging to the State.

• Dal Lake, situated in the northeast of Srinagar (the capital of Jammu and Kashmir) in Kashmir valley, is one of the most beautiful lakes in India and the second largest lake in Jammu and Kashmir.
• The lake is probably of fluvial origin, formed from the oxbows of river Jhelum.
• Due to its beauty and attraction, Dal lake is also known as the "Jewel in crown of Kashmir or Srinagar's Jewel".

• West Bengal’s Swayangsiddha scheme, which encourages girls to report stalking or harassment faced either by them or anyone known to them.
• Swayangsiddha boxes have been set up in schools where girls can put chits (complaints).

Recently, India submitted its Sixth National Report (NR6) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).